BOY OF 14 ENGAGED TO MARRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 19

BOY OF 14 ENGAGED TO MARRY.

WED IN TWO YEARS. Married at 1G himself, John Berrlcloth, cate for the marriage of his 14-year-old son William when he also reaches 16. Berrlcloth's opinions were very strongly expressed to Eastbourne magistrates when he was summoned for failing to send the boy to school. " My boy has reached 14 years of age, and I will not send him to school for you or anybody else, so you can make what order you like," he told the magistrates. "He has & good education, and Is ln the top class, and I shall not send him any more." "Why," he added as a conclusive argument, "ihe Is engaged to be married when he is 10." In an Interview, Berrlcloth said his boy was courting a girl who was about his own age, and had attended the same school, and was getting married \n two years' time. Asked If he had given his consent, he said, "Certainly; why not? 1 was married at 16. and have had three wives." Berricloth expressed his disgust at the law ln attempting to compel him to send his boy to school after he was 14. "I was a master man at that age," he said, "and had three or four ponies and carts, and did a real good hawker's business. My boy will be a man in two years." < The boy Is a second child of a family of eight. Mrs. Berrlcloth holds opposite views early match, but supposed that ln the end he would have his own way. It is the boy's desire to be an engineer or a sailor, but his father -would like him to take up his own business.